Illegal Dismissal Case is a Command on Employer to make Public Reparation hence Prescribes in Four Years
Although illegal dismissal is a violation of the Labor Code, it is not the “offense” contemplated in Article 305 [formerly Article 290] of the Labor Code. [Arriola vs. Pilipino Star Ngayon, Inc., G.R. No. 175689. August 13, 2014]
Article 305 refers to illegal acts penalized under the Labor Code, including committing any of the prohibited activities during strikes or lockouts, unfair labor practices, and illegal recruitment activities. The three-year prescriptive period under Article 305, therefore, does not apply to complaints for illegal dismissal.
Instead, “by way of supplement,” Article 1146 of the Civil Code of the Philippines governs complaints for illegal dismissal. Under Article 1146, an action based upon an injury to the rights of a plaintiff must be filed within four years.
When one is arbitrarily and unjustly deprived of his job or means of livelihood, the action instituted to contest the legality of one’s dismissal from employment constitutes, in essence, an action predicated upon an injury to the rights of the plaintiff, as contemplated under Art. 1146 of the New Civil Code, which must be brought within four [4] years.
This four-year prescriptive period likewise applies to claims for backwages, not the three-year prescriptive period under Article 305 of the Labor Code. A claim for backwages, according to the Supreme Court (SC), may be a money claim “by reason of its practical effect.”
But according to the SC, an award of backwages is merely one of the reliefs which an illegally dismissed
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employee prays the labor arbiter and the NLRC to render in his favor as a consequence of the unlawful act committed by the employer.”
Though it results in the enrichment of the individual illegally dismissed, the award of backwages is not in redress of a private right, but, rather, is in the nature of a command upon the employer to make public reparation for his violation of the Labor Code.
Actions for damages due to illegal dismissal are likewise actions upon an injury to the rights of the plaintiff. Article 1146 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, therefore, governs these actions.
Thus, the prescriptive period for filing an illegal dismissal complaint is four years from the time the cause of action accrued. Since an award of backwages is merely consequent to a declaration of illegal dismissal, a claim for backwages likewise prescribes in four years.
The four-year prescriptive period under Article 1146 also applies to actions for damages due to illegal dismissal since such actions are based on an injury to the rights of the person dismissed.
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